#House of Blues Orlando

[deswalker]

The Pool // Stephen Sanchez 🖤 12.11

[thephotopitmagazine]

FROM THE PIT TO THE CROWD: DIIV WITH HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE AND DUTCH INTERIORS - HOUSE OF BLUES ORLANDO - LAKE BUENA VISTA FL - JULY 20, 2024

FROM THE PIT TO THE CROWD: DIIV WITH HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE AND DUTCH INTERIORS - HOUSE OF BLUES ORLANDO - LAKE BUENA VISTA FL - JULY 20, 2024

[deadxclown]

⚔️ WEEDKILLER ⚔️

[rubbish78]

Ryan Ross and Jon Walker + 😎

[smeagles]

Orlando 5.18.2011 // Jason Wilder

[mossdeep]

not me scrolling through old concert videos and tearing up

[kickdrumheart68]

Avett Brothers "Sanguine" House of Blues, Orlando, FL 04.11.15

[fellow1human]

Anyone going to the Hayley Kiyoko concert on April 27th at House of Blues???

[popentertainment-concertphotos]

Miya Folick – House of Blues – Orlando, FL – April 12, 2023

Photos by Kai Lyan © 2023

[mikeysbride]

Just (Another) Taste of Allen Stone

Last night, I saw Allen Stone for the third time, and I can honestly say he gets better every time I see him. Each time, I think he can’t possibly be any more awesome, yet he manages to do it anyway. It’s a gift, really - to be such a consummate showman and then to share that gift with his fans. No wonder we keep coming back for more.

This time, I saw Allen with my 14yo daughter, just the two of us. The previous time, it was our whole family, and the time before that, I went with a friend. This was my daughter's second time to see him but her first time seeing him with a full band behind him. It’s a whole new level of joy and pride to expose your kids to the thing that makes you tick (live music, in my case) and to have them fully appreciate it too. Allen is an artist I introduced them to, yet she was singing even louder than me at times and dancing along with me like we do in our kitchen…in the car…in the grocery store…basically everywhere.

We got the tickets months ago and were super excited, but for a variety of reasons, I wasn’t sure how the night might go or even if I truly felt like going, but that all went away once we got there and especially the moment Allen walked on stage. Then it was like, “Oh, yeah. This is that thing I love - the thing that keeps me sane. That’s why we did this and on a work and school night, no less.” Allen even spoke to that, as if he were reading my mind - that he wanted to create an experience where none of the burdens or worries we came in with mattered while we were there together. And that is exactly what he did. I had not a care in the world the entire couple of hours he performed. It was all joy, and as tired as I am after getting only 4 hours of sleep before having to get up again this morning, I’m still so happy we went. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

I’ll also say, after all this time Florida, I finally found the perfect spot to stand at House of Blues. That made a huge difference as well. The last time I was there, for Teddy Swims in October, I vowed that I was done with standing room only shows for good…only to fast forward to now and have tickets for Allen and also an upcoming Alec Benjamin show there - both of which are standing room shows. I thought I’d lost my mind. That was one of the things I was apprehensive about going into last night’s show, but it worked out beautifully. Now I just need to make a mad dash to claim that same spot every time I’m there, and all will be well with the world.

As fabulous as the show was, my mind kept going back to this one thought, and that is that fun times and making memories with my kids is everything. When they’re telling their own kids about how I parented them or when I’m no longer here, these are the times I want them to remember. The world is uncertain at times, but I always want them to remember at least these two things are a given: 1) Mommy loves them with everything in her, and 2) Music is their mother’s happy place, and sharing that with them - even on a school night - is a big deal. When the artists that matter most to us make an appearance, showing up for them becomes a priority.

Next up, twenty one pilots in a couple of weeks. The whole family is going to that one, plus one of the girls’ friends. That one is also on a school night but thankfully not standing room! Here’s hoping I can catch up on some sleep between now and then because this mama is tired.

[hepatitisneedle]

cool part about seeing Hail the Sun was this pillar

[thephotopitmagazine]

FROM THE PIT TO THE CROWD: THE BLACKOUT TOUR PT. 2 - FROM ASHES TO NEW WITH EKOH, PHIX, AND ELIJAH - HOUSE OF BLUES ORLANDO - LAKE BUENA VISTA FL - MAY 9, 2024

FROM THE PIT TO THE CROWD: THE BLACKOUT TOUR PT. 2 - FROM ASHES TO NEW WITH EKOH, PHIX, AND ELIJAH - HOUSE OF BLUES ORLANDO - LAKE BUENA VISTA FL - MAY 9, 2024

[tingletits]

Kali Uchis: Te Mata (Live version)

Red moon in Venus tour Orlando may 2023

[popentertainmentconcertreviews]

Aly and AJ – House of Blues – Orlando, FL – April 12, 2023

Seeing Aly and AJ perform in the new millennium was both amazing and nostalgic. Aly and AJ Michalka are sisters from Torrance, California who started their music careers when they were 13 and 15 years old, coming out with their first album titled Into the Rush, which featured well known songs “Rush” and “On The Ride.” Being a 90’s baby and growing up listening to them on Radio Disney and watching them on Disney Channel shows and movies like Cow Bells and Phil of the Future, you just have to know who they are, because how could you not? 

During the show, the pop rock sister duo played the entirety of their newest album, With Love From, along with a few songs from previous albums, a touch of the beat… and We Don’t Stop. I didn't listen to their new album before attending the show, so my experience felt almost like a live album release party. Of course they also played the classics like “Potential Breakup Song” and “Like Whoa” from their album Insomniatic, along with a couple other songs from the early 2000’s that pretty much everyone knew considering everyone became very excited when they started singing it and they the audience was practically yelling the lyrics word for word.

They were energetic and lively on stage and interacted with the audience like we have all been the best of friends for decades. I loved it when they referenced being Disney kids and spoke about their older music since I'm sure most, if not all, of their fans know them from their Disney acting and music days.

The energy they had with each other on stage was touching and you could really tell how much love they have for each other and performing together. Before they started performing their song “Slow Dancing,” they mentioned the song being meant to slow dance to and told the audience to dance with whoever they came with or if they came alone and were comfortable, to ask for permission to dance with a stranger next to you. Seeing the whole venue either dance with who they came with or even sway on their own, while singing along was so beautiful and toward the end of the song, people started holding up their flashlights on their phones. It was such a beautiful moment of the show.

Their performance has opened me up to their newer music and I think that everyone should “Rush” and experience Aly & AJ live because you will not be disappointed.

Kai Lyan

Copyright ©2023 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: April 14, 2023.

Photos by Kai Lyan © 2023. All rights reserved.

[we-made-it-this-far-kid]

I saw Fletcher last night and I was on barricade and I got to meet her and honestly it feels like a fever dream. It was the best concert and night of my life. Here’s some pics I’m shocked that I’m still standing.

[sirfrogsworth]

Photo Restoration Project - Part 1

A long time ago, Katrina sent me some old photos of her family I could restore. Her parents have been helping me from afar for years and I really wanted to do something nice for them. Unfortunately my dad got much worse and I pretty much forgot about this project for quite some time.

But then I decided to visit Katrina in Orlando and we discussed having dinner with her parents and I remembered these photos. So I thought I would fix them up so I could present them as a gift in person.

The first and most important photo was from her parents wedding.

Old photo prints can fade over time due to UV light exposure. From what I understand, different colors fade at different rates and red/orange tones tend to be the least susceptible to this fading. Thankfully all of the color information is still there, it's just that the darks are not as dark and the lights are not as light. The dynamic range got squeezed like an accordion. However, if you do a levels adjustment on the red, blue, and green channels individually, you can unsqueeze the accordion and balance everything back to the way it was.

But you can't always save everything and there may be other damage that needs fixing. If something becomes pure white, there is no way to restore that detail. Thankfully I was able to use the new generative fill feature to bring back detail in the dress, the flowers, and the tuxedo shirt.

And because I hate front facing flash and how it makes colors look ugly and sterile, I may have also added a marble floor and pillars.

Next up was a photo of Anastasia, Katrina's mom, protesting Henry Kissinger on behalf of her home country of Greece. This suffered from the same color fading issues.

What made this one a little more tricky was an uneven fading. The left side had to be adjusted independently and the top was even more faded. I had to isolate the trees to bring back their color. And the protest signs were difficult to read, so I enhanced those as well.

Next we have this lovely photo of Anastasia tending to some house plants.

This photo was actually in decent shape. It lost a little contrast, had a little bit of fading, and her top retained almost no detail I could recover. Recovering accurate skin tones is probably one of the most important skills I learned when restoring these photos. I wanted to keep that filmic look of the era while avoiding making people look jaundiced or pale. Lightroom's new masking feature that let's you isolate every aspect of the people it detects in a photo. This made fixing skin tones much easier. I could isolate just her face or her lips or her hair or her eyes and make precise individual adjustments. This process could have taken a great deal longer without this feature. But, I brought back proper contrast and color, added a little bit of detail to her top with gen fill, and hopefully got fairly accurate skin tones as well.

Next up, forward facing flash strikes again in a photo of Mike and Anastasia during Christmas.

Film did not do well in low light. If it was indoors and nighttime, you pretty much had no choice but to use flash. But a flash is a very small, bright light source and this causes a very unflattering result on humans. Today we have much more powerful flashes with rotating heads. We can bounce the light into the ceiling or off a wall and increase the size of the light source to get a more flattering result.

In this photo I wasn't able to do much, so I just balanced the skin tones and brought out some hidden detail and called it a day. It's still a lovely memory and thankfully film has such character that it negates a lot of the unflattering aspects of direct flash.

Next up is some cuteness...

A big priority when editing photos is to make sure the subjects are the star of the photo. And in this one their faces were a bit obscured in shadow. There was also a lot of haze in the background hiding the beautiful vista. Not to mention when I cleared that haze, there was this super faint hint of something in the sky. I can't tell if it was a rainbow, but I decided to believe it was a rainbow. The only thing that I am still struggling with, and this seems to be common with a lot of old photos, is green. Getting a good, saturated, natural green to look right has been very difficult. Everything I try ends up looking toxic or fake. The only thing that ends up looking right with the rest of the photo is more of a yellow-y brown. It's something I'll have to work on as I learn, but as long as the overall photo looks balanced and natural, I'm okay with not perfectly nailing the greens.

Up next we have a lovely scene on a Greek dock...

As far as editing goes, this was pretty basic. I just undid the fading, adjusted the skin tones, replaced the blown-out sky, and made the colors pop. But I think this is actually one of my favorite before and after shots. I just love how such a simple fix brought this scene to life.

A new car is a big deal and Anastasia looks so proud here...

This image has another common issue in addition to the typical fading of colors. It has a yellowish orange color cast. This could have been an issue with the film used or the development process or a chemical reaction on the print. A color cast is a lot like looking through colored glasses. It's like a translucent color material was put on top of the image. This can be a little trickier to deal with, but if you know your color theory, you might already know the solution. Blue is the opposite of yellow/orange on the color wheel, so if you introduce blue to the image it should balance out. Also, add a sky if it was missing.

Next up we have a landscaping project...

This one wasn't too tricky, but there was one interesting issue I had to address. All light has a color temperature. Daylight has a temperature of around 5500K. But the inside of the garage was being lit by reflected light and so that light took on the color temperature of the things it was bouncing off of. So I had to mask out the people and the car and address the color temperature inside the garage to make everything look balanced. Also, the green fought me hard on this one. And with the theme of this picture being plants, I felt I really needed to find a tone that worked. I think I finally got there, but I spent way too much time in the color picker doing trial and error of green tones. Also, new sky.

With this next one I actually did a pretty thorough explanation of how I edited it. But this was probably my favorite puzzle to solve from this collection of photos.

I'll do the abridged explanation...

The physical photograph was printed on a paper with a very heavy texture. And when it was scanned, the light from the scanner bounced off that texture and created a pattern of unwanted highlights.

I was worried this was impossible to fix and I almost gave up on this photo. But after one final Google search I discovered something called "Fast Fourier Transform." It's a mathematical formula that can be used to detect patterns. And the image editing software Affinity Photo, just so happens to have a filter called FFT denoise that helps you remove unwanted patterns from scanned photos.

And thanks to that filter, I was able to remove a substantial amount of that pattern...

Then I did my standard clean up techniques...

Oh, and I decided to try learning how to colorize.

Photoshop has a new set of experimental filters and a colorization tool is one of them. It is not great yet, but it is a great starting place. Instead of having to hand paint every single thing in the photo, Photoshop gave me a base to work with and I could take it from there with traditional techniques.

That's all I have the energy for today, but there are a bunch of cool restorations to talk about. Hopefully you all find this interesting. It was such a great gift to give to Katrina's parents. And spending that time with them and making them happy felt like I was with my own parents again. So we all got a gift in that wonderful evening.

Part 2 coming as soon as I have the energy!